[SOLVED] Partition to partition bootable clone--need some help.

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

Sorry if I'm not in the right section--couldn't see one specifically for this. I want to do a partition to partition clone that is bootable from the target disc once the cloning process is completed. I am wondering if 'Macrium Reflect 7 Free' either Home or Business edition is able to do this. I am currently running Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium on a 1 Tb Western Digital 'Black' sata drive that has 3 partitions--C:, D:, and E: (it is used primarily as a bcakup drive). I want to clone the C: partition ONLY from that drive to a Western Digital Sata 279 Gb HDD (Velociraptor) which has been formatted with NTFS, and shows up as 'New Volume' G: in Windows Disc Management . This will be the target drive, and is several Gb larger in size than the C:/ partition on the 1 Tb drive.. After the clone is complete I would disconnect my 1 Tb drive (which contains the C: source partition), and then configure my bios to boot from the target 279 Gb HDD containing the new clone/image. I then want to be able to boot from that target drive as my new C:/ drive with everything working as normal. On the Macrium site there is some mention of 'Virtual' machine'--I do not want to mess with any of that. Can this operation be successfully carried out with Macrium Free edition? And will the target drive/clone contain the necessary boot sector?

One thing--I notice on the Macrium site two options: either cloning to an external HDD, or having the target internal HDD running from an external drive enclosure during the cloning process. I am planning rather to have the target 279 internal HDD running from a sata port on the motherboard during cloning. Will this cause any issues with Macrium free?
I have tried Aomei free, and Acronis free, and neither will produce a bootable clone on the target drive--the paid version is required for each of those. One other option is I have downloaded 'Cloneilla'. It looks like it will do what I need, but I am bit nervous that from a boot disc it is possible to overwrite ANY installed drive. If something went wrong and my source drive was compromised it could cause issues I'm not sure could be fixed. So, for that reason I would prefer to do this from within Windows for now. Thanks for any help.

 

[karenjoly]

You say

" I want to do a partition to partition clone that is bootable from the target disc once the cloning process is completed. I am wondering if 'Macrium Reflect 7 Free' either Home or Business edition is able to do this"

Yes, Home np see here.

http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk

The operation requires you to select which partitions to clone--ie, you drag them or check them off for cloning.

This clones internal origin to internal target drives.

No need to disconnect the origin afterwards, just bring up the boot menu available after POST and select whichever drive to boot from.

I have not heard of origin data corruption resulting from the operation but back up that chosen personal stuff if you like.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, Macrium Reflect Free will do this.
For your cloning, you select ALL partitions except the one you do not want. You can't select 'only' the C partition. You need the System Reserved, etc.

Adjust as needed:

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[USAFRet]

For verification, please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

 

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

Thanks for the replies. USAFRet You said "For your cloning, you select ALL partitions except the one you do not want. You can't select 'only' the C partition."--I only want to clone that C: partition to the target drive, and nothing else. So, would I not select only that partition when setting up my cloning?

I am not cloning to an SSD, but to a 10,000 rpm Velociraptor HDD also connected to a sata port on the Mobo. The source drive is also an HDD (not SSD) 1 Tb in size. It had 3 partitions (C, D, and E) all of 310 Gb size. I say 'had' because it now has an additional partition called 'unallocated' as I did a 'shrink' of that 'C:' partition to bring it below the target drive size which is total of 279 Gb. The C; partition (intended source) is now 274.33 Gb in size--Windows Disc Management would not allow me to make it any smaller even though there is only 244 Gb used. In Disc Management that C: partition shows as containing both boot, and system, so I know it holds the healthy boot sector (boot likely is not on another unseen partition).The target HDD is 279.47 Gb.

I am currently limited to mobile data for internet, tethering my phone to my desktop as a 'hotspot'. I don't have a lot of data so did not want to download Macrium before I know it works. One of the other programs I tried was a 600mb download, but I now see Macrium is only 100 mb. Still, I'd rather not waste the data on another program that doesn't get the job done. Thanks for any further replies.

 

[USAFRet]

SSD, HDD, Velociraptor...makes no difference.
That is my standard copy/paste, and the usual move here is from an HDD to a new SSD.

Select all partitions except the large data partitions you do not want.
That's why I requested a screencap, so that we can determine exactly what should go and what shouldn't.

 

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

I am trying to figure out how to upload an image file to here. I do not use programs like Imgur, etc. Do I need to create an account at sites like 'Imgur' to upload to here? Why doesn't Tom's have the ability to upload a pic without all of that anyways??
__________________________________________________

I have been trying for an hour to upload a shot of 'Disk Management' using 'Imgur' and 'Tinypic'? without success. I have not created an account on those sites--perhaps that is the problem. I have to go eat, and do other things. They said computers would save us time--so much for that theory:/ I will check back here tomorrow. Thanks for suggestions offered thus far.

 

[USAFRet]

I am trying to figure out how to upload an image file to here. I do not use programs like Imgur, etc. Do I need to create an account at sites like 'Imgur' to upload to here? Why doesn't Tom's have the ability to upload a pic without all of that anyways??

You don't need an 'account' at imgur.com.

Tom's does not carry the ability to host pics natively, due to the overhead in filtering out porn from all the idiots out there.
Yes, this has been discussed at levels far above the Moderation team.

 

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

Update: I thought to myself that I'm losing more mobile data doing all this online research than the download would use. So, I downloaded 'Macrium Reflect 7 Free Home Edition', and installed it. I then selected 'clone this disk' and selected the partition I wanted to clone. I then selected the target drive and started the operation. I am typing this from the target drive (which I booted from successfully), and all seems to be working. I now just need to reconnect my two data drives with all my games, and try to run a few of them. I already ran '3D Mark Firestrike' successfully, so things are looking good. I send Kudos to the Macrium team for creating a free version of their software that actually works, unlike Acronis and Aomei whose software leaves one with a non bootable clone and a request for $$ to complete the task. My next resort would have been 'Clonezilla' for which I created a boot disc, and believe it would have worked as well.

Thanks for your help to the three members who replied to my inquiries. All of this started 2 weeks ago with a machine that was crashing in just about every game with BSOD, etc. After running diagnostics on just about every component in my system, I decided to roll back to this clone which was a known good working configuration. With the addition of a couple of BIOS tweaks everything seems rock solid now. Hope that is the end of it, and I can actually enjoy using this machine again. You may consider this case as closed. Thanks to the moderator for helping, but I gave credit to 'Karenjoly' as she had the first reply with the correct answer.

 

[DiGiTaLdAzE]

Here are my results running current versions of several different free versions of backup/cloning programs. (my apologies if posting this info violates any forum rules):
1. Acronis True Image Western Digital Edition Free--Can create a clone,but it is not bootable from the target drive.
2. Aomei Backupper Free--Can create a clone but it is not bootable from the target drive.
3. Ease Us Partition Manager--Can create a clone, but it is not bootable from the target drive.
4. Clonezilla--Can create a clone that IS bootable from the target drive.The 'Clonezilla' download is a file that is used to create a boot disc from which Clonezilla is run pre-Windows. A good tutorial on using the program (with screen shots) can be found here:

https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-clone-your-hard-drive-with-clonezilla

5. Macrium Reflect Free--Can make a clone that IS bootable from the target drive.

:**Paid versions of all the above software will, to my knowledge, produce a clone that IS bootable from the target drive. The above results are what I found running the free versions of these programs to the best of my ability i.e. it is possible that there was user error on my part, but in at least some cases where I created a clone that would not boot I received a message advising a paid upgrade was needed to unlock that feature.
***I have not personally used 'Clonezilla' Free, but the above tutorial link appears to make it clear that the program will produce a clone that IS bootable from the target drive. I did successfully create a partition to partition clone using 'Macrium Reflect Free' which booted properly, and I am running without issue(s).
I hope the above info saves others users some time in making the correct software choice for their computing needs. _____________________________________________________

my system specs (still rockin' an X58):
EVGA E770 Classified 3 mobo/ intel I7 950 cpu/ EVGA GTX 970 SSC SLI x 2/ Corsair Dominator 1600 Mhz DDR3 12 GB (@ 1067 Mhz currently--seems more stable) / Corsair AX 1200 PSU/ Western Digital HLHX Velociraptor HDDs-10,000 rpm-279 Gb x3